*BS*Ebbsfleet United 4 Dover Athletic 4
Report by man of the match Joe Fisher*BF*
The game started off at a high tempo with Ebbsfleet pressing the Dover defence high not giving any room for them to play their normal passing game. For the first 10 minutes the Dover boys were under the cosh and panicked to get the ball out.
After a while Dover got to grips with the game and broke through. Mitchell Selby passed to Joe Fisher, who beat two defenders and won a penalty. David Pilcher stepped up confidently and zinged the ball into the top corner.
The game was box to box after that both teams not really creating any clear cut chances, but after a bit of sloppy defending the Dover boys were punished with a clinical header.
Dover attacked once again with good passing possession in the centre of the park, where Mitchell Selby played the ball out wide to Olly Beard setting the ball back to David Pilcher. He crossed a deep ball towards the back post which Mitchell ran on to and headed against the post. The ball bounced back to Joe Fisher, who lobbed the goal keeper with the outside of his foot, 2-1 to the boys in white.
Soon after the kick off Joe Ellet made some excellent tackles to stop their winger getting in behind and kept us in the game. Harry Brown made a strong pass into Joe Fisher’s feet and he created some room to play a pinpoint pass over the top of the defence to Mitchell Selby to make a third man run and latch on to the ball and lob the goalkeeper with a natural finish.
Soon after the restart Kane Smith had to come off for a short period of time with a deep gash across his chest which left the boys to deal with 11 vs 10. Dover were caught out in the centre of the park, which led to a goal to the boys in red and black.
3-2 at half time
2nd Half
Straight from kick off the Ebbsfleet boys started to pile on the pressure, looking more likely to score the next goal. However, after keeping the ball well for a short period of time Mitchell Selby was fouled on the right flank. David Pilcher saw the run of Joe Fisher, who was picked out perfectly. He took two touches and beat the right back, smashing home the fourth goal into the roof of the net.
After a lot of high pressure from Ebbsfleet it paid off. They ran through and scored a controversial offside goal to make it 4-3.
Their fourth came about by a lucky break through our defence which led to a great save by Wesley Miller. However, none of the Dover team reacted to it and their striker played a ball across goal for a easy close range header.
The game finished 4-4 with the Dover boys feeling hard done by after going ahead. A lot of positives may be taken from the game though as it is our first point from our 3 games.